By Charmaine Ndlela
President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared 4 November 2026 a public holiday to allow South Africans to participate in the Local Government Elections.
The declaration was made in terms of Section 2A of the Public Holidays Act, with Wednesday, 4 November declared a public holiday throughout the country in connection with the elections.
South Africans will head to voting stations to elect representatives to municipal councils across the country.
The election is expected to be highly contested, with 142,072 candidates set to compete for 10,526 council seats.
According to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), 546 of the 732 political parties registered at various levels have nominated candidates for the elections, meaning about 75% of registered parties are participating.
The candidate nomination period closed at 5pm on 28 August, with political parties and independent candidates submitting nominations through the IEC’s online system and manually at its offices.
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